Astaire Gardens forms emergency response team to make life easy in lockdown

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Soon after Covid-19 cases started emerging last month in the city, Astaire Gardens in Sector 70 created an emergency response team (ERT) to tackle the unprecedented situation. Since then, the team has been coordinating all the efforts to ensure that life under the ongoing nationwide lockdown goes on without any major hiccups.

Besides, the gated society, which houses about 350 families, has taken a number of steps aimed at containing the spread of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The ERT comprises members of the residents’ welfare association (RWA), representatives from various blocks and the builder, who are working in tandem to contain the spread of coronavirus disease.

“We constituted the team early on as more and more updates regarding Covid-19 started emerging. We coordinate our efforts and ensure that needs of residents, especially senior citizens who are at greater risk of being contracted the deadly virus, are met. We help them with essential supplies such as medicines, or any other requirement that arises,” said Neehar Ranjan, president of the RWA.

Rahul Srivastava, a member of the RWA and the response team, said that the ERT worked as a point of contact with the senior citizens. Srivastava said, “We have details of all senior citizens with us. Whenever there is a delivery at the gate, the security guard informs the block-wise ERT members who go and collect the deliveries. The supplies are then delivered to the senior citizens.”

Srivastava said that senior citizens could reach out to the team for all kinds of assistance, including household work if required. “While we have not received any request from senior citizens regarding household work so far, an arrangement has been worked out if the need arises,” he said.

Asha Malhotra, 64, said that senior citizens like her were being taken care of. “We are not facing any problem. Whenever our deliveries arrive at the gate, they are collected by the members of the response team who bring them to our doorsteps,” said Malhotra, who lives with her husband and has been managing the household work on her own.

The society has barred the entry of part-time domestic helps such as maids, cooks, drivers, car cleaners, and dog walkers, among others. Entry for external vendors such as food delivery persons has been restricted. Residents are required to collect the belongings from the main gate. All persons entering the building with deliveries are thermal scanned and mandatorily required to use sanitizers, the RWA said, adding that a makeshift washbasin has also been placed at the entrance.

In view of the lockdown, the society has provided all essential staff members with boarding and lodging facilities within the condominium. “It was becoming difficult for our support staff to commute with restrictions in place. Moreover, we felt that any unnecessary exposure was not safe. To resolve the issue, we made arrangements within the society for the whole shift. Looking after their health and accommodation is necessary since they are the ones who keep the society running,” said Ranjan.

The staff have been housed in two floors of a villa while residents have taken the responsibility of providing them with rations and other requirements. “We have around 10-12 people living on the premises for the day shift and a skeleton staff for the night shift. They have been provided with ration and induction cookers,” said the RWA president.

While the condominium does not have grocery shops within the complex, it has tied up with a retail outlet that delivers at request. “In order to restrict the movement of residents and provide them with safer options, we tied up with the retail chain. Every week, the retail chain puts out a form seeking details of the commodities required by residents,” said Ranjan.

Guards on duty ensure that residents adhere to physical distancing protocols and stand at a distance from each other. “We realised that there is a rush of people whenever essential services are delivered at the gate. The guards monitor the situation and ensure that people collect the deliveries one by one in a designated spot. The retail chain calls up residents one by one and asks them to collect their order,” said Ranjan.

The condominium has also been utilising the provisions supplied by the MCG for helping people residing in the neighbouring slums in Parla village. “Once or twice in a week, we reach out to the MCG’s provisions facility which sends a truck of supplies. We buy from them and distribute rations among domestic helps and others in need in the nearby sites. We give out packets of rice, pulses, and flour,” said Ranjan.

Since the lockdown started, the condominium has been maintaining a record of persons moving out. “Whenever a person is stepping out of the society, we note down the details and the reason for which the individual is stepping out. We have around 350 families. After monitoring the movement of people, we have realised that about 40 people are moving out on an average daily,” said Srivastava.